She said: "I heard a lot about the film and I'm really looking forward to
seeing it.

"I've never been to a film festival before and Edinburgh is a really lovely
place, so I'm really excited."

Jack McConnell had earlier said he was "proud" that the festival's first
film was Scottish and that he wanted to see the industry flourish north of the
border.

He said: "We already have one of the best film festivals in the world, the
challenge now is to make our domestic film industry and the contribution of
Scottish talent to cinemas worldwide even more successful.

Ticket sales for the festival are already up 20% on last year and organisers
are tipping this year's event to be one of the best ever.

Withdraw the movie

However, the festival was dealt a blow earlier on Wednesday when it was confirmed
that Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood's latest movie has been withdrawn from the
event.

Mystic River, which is directed by Eastwood and stars Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon
and Tim Robbins, was due to be shown twice during the festival.

But its distributors, Warner Brothers, said that "unforeseen scheduling
commitments" had forced them to withdraw the movie.

The 57th festival will feature more than 100 film premieres between 13 and 24 August.